Plan could lower pistol permit fee

Tuscaloosa County residents could see the cost of pistol permits decrease if a plan proposed by the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office passes the state Legislature.

Right now, county residents can apply for a pistol permit free of charge, after which the sheriff’s staff runs a background check on the applicant. If the applicant is legally allowed to receive a permit, they pay a $20 fee for each year they want to be licensed, up to five years.

Sheriff Ron Abernathy said Wednesday that the problem with the current system is that the $20 fee is paid on the issuance of the permit, not upon application, which often leaves his staff doing a lot of legwork for nothing.

“Each year, we have about 1,500 people that are denied permits or don’t come pick their permit up,” Abernathy said. “But we’re doing the same amount of work to process those applications as for people who are legally allowed to have a permit.”

Falling behind isn’t an option, either -- Abernathy said state law requires the Sheriff’s Office to issue or deny a pistol permit within 30 days of someone's application.

To alleviate the situation, Abernathy is asking the Legislature to allow his office to charge an application fee for permits in the future.

If approved, county residents will pay $18 upon application for a license. If they pass the background check, there will be no issuance fee and the applicant pay $2 less for their permit than it currently costs. If the application is denied, though, the sheriff’s office will keep the $18.

Abernathy said the change will reduce applications from people who aren’t legally allowed to have a pistol permit and will help pay for the two part-time employees he hired to ensure the sheriff’s office issues or denies permits in the 30-day window allowed by the state.

“We’ve got one convicted felon I know of that has applied three different times,” Abernathy said. “He’s not paying any money, but we have to go through the same workload every time he comes in. We hope this will eliminate having to repeat the same work over and over on people who are ineligible.”

The Tuscaloosa County Commission passed a resolution in support of the change during their meeting Wednesday morning, where Probate Judge Hardy McCollum said he supported the proposed change and said it might eventually take root statewide.

“You get folks who are making applications who know darn well they’re not going to be granted one for various reasons, but a lot of times they hope to just slip through the system,” McCollum said. “If somebody has to apply and pay up front to get this application, they won’t do it frivolously.”